St Jude's Mapperley Archive Blog

Ben here with this week's Monday Morning Mail:   Yesterday we continued our studies in the book of Proverbs as we explored the topic of Friends and Neighbours.   Today we live in a highly connected world where instant communication across the globe is possible at the click of a mouse. Yet despite the fact that we're probably more connected than ever, a recent survey indicted as many as 20% of adults feel lonely. Life is also chaotic and relationships with friends and neighbours are rarely easy or uneventful.   Proverbs speaks into this situation with God inspired insights on how to live wisely, how to live life well. As we've seen over the last few weeks, it begins by saying put Jesus at the centre and then listen to his wisdom about how to be wise friends and neighbours. In Proverbs these relationships can be both close personal friendships and people we come into regular contact with like next door neighbours and work colleagues.   Proverbs has lo...

Here are this week’s notices:   Thank you for your generosity in giving to World Vision’s work with Syrian refugees , which has so far raised over £1,100. Helping those in difficulty is an important part of shining with God’s light in his world, so it’s great to take this opportunity to support those in need. If you’d still like to give, there are some envelopes available at the back of church.   John and Lydia are delighted to announce the birth of David "Davey" Joshua Allister , born at 1:30am yesterday, mass 3.65kg (around 8Ibs). Mother and baby are both well. This also means that John is now on paternity leave for the next two weeks – as I’m sure you’ll understand they’ll both appreciate some space as they adjust to having a new member of their family. For any urgent church matters please either contact myself or the church office. This week : Thursday Weekly Prayer Meeting 8.30am-9am (Church Lounge) 321 Cont...

Yesterday morning, we looked at the story of David & Goliath from 1 Samuel 17. It's one of those stories that is so well-known that we often miss the point of it. Here are a few quick thoughts. 1. You can never find safety in human strength or wisdom. One of the key characters in the story is Saul. After all, Saul was the king the people wanted because he was so impressive. He was a head taller than anyone else (1 Sam 10:23) and was a great military leader. The people thought they would be safe with him as their king. But the problem with trusting in human strength or wisdom is that there is always someone stronger, someone wiser or cleverer or more beautiful. Or in this case, taller . Saul was a head taller than any of the Israelites; he was the impressive soldier who should have fought as the people's champion. But he was used to trusting in his size, in his armour and weapons, and 1 Samuel makes the point that in all those categories the new Phili...

Yesterday we began a new short series in Haggai. It's one of the less-famous books in the Bible, but it's still got a really powerful message for us today. It helps to understand the context. For hundreds of years, God's people had been an independent country, living in the kingdom of Judah, with its capital at Jerusalem. The Temple (as built by Solomon) was the centre of their society – it was where they met together to hear God's word; it was the one place on earth where God had promised to be; it was where they went to pray; it was where the sacrifices happened so that they could be put right with God when they had messed up; it was at the centre of all their festivals as well. Because this was before Jesus, it was much more important even than church is today. But then in 587BC, disaster struck. Nebuchadnezzar, emperor of Babylon, captured and destroyed Jerusalem. The temple was in ruins; the people were deported to Babylon – a period know...

Hi all, Here are this week's notices! Tuesday 7th, 7:30pm - Welcome Service for +Paul at St Mary's in the Lace Market Wednesday 8th - 10:30am Midweek Communion Service Thursday 9th , 8:30am Weekly Prayer Meeting Next Tuesday (14th July), 8pm Church Prayer Meeting Holiday Club - 26th-28th August Booking forms are now available – the club will run from Wednesday to Friday and on Sunday 30th there will be a special service and BBQ. If you would like to help with Holiday Club please either speak to Paula or come to the meeting on Tuesday 21st July 7.30pm in the church Lounge. Sunday 12th July 9:15am Holy Communion 11am All-Age Baptism Service - starting in the large hall followed by Bring & Share lunch - celebrating baptisms and welcoming Ben & Jackie All the best, John -- Rev. John Allister Vicar, St Jude's Mapperley revjohnallister@gmail.com

Greetings! Yesterday at St Jude's we were thinking particularly about how to share God's love and the good news of Jesus with our families and close friends. I said I'd found one book in particular really helpful, which was Bringing the Gospel Home by R. Newman (the link is to the IVP online bookshop, where it's only £5 at the moment...) Incidentally, Newman's earlier book Questioning Evangelism is also really good for thinking through how to share the good news in our conversations more generally. We looked at the theme yesterday through the lens of Jesus' conversation with the woman of Samaria in John 4 . As so often in John's gospel, the story serves to illustrate a lot of what has already been said about Jesus. So in John 3:17 we read that "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him", and in John 1:17, John sums up Jesus' message as " Grace and truth ". An...

Yesterday, we were continuing in our series looking at some of the basics of the Christian faith from a slightly different angle, and we were looking in particular at Faith and Doubt from Psalm 77 , which was written by David's chief musician, Asaph. A lot of people today seem to think that faith is the opposite of doubt, but that isn't how Asaph saw it at all. Instead we'll see that faith is something we choose (or don't), and that the opposite of faith is pride. But I'm getting ahead of myself a little... Asaph was in a very difficult situation (v1-6). He doesn't explain exactly what was happening, but he tells us that he couldn't sleep, and that his spirit "refused to be comforted". It feels like God is a million miles away; all that he has left of faith is a memory of times gone by when he enjoyed singing to God, and that memory hurts. More than that, Asaph probably didn't see it himself at the time, but he had becom...